Percussion musical instrument.



J. C. DEAGAN.

PERCUSSION MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. APPLICATION FILED OCT. 24. 1911.

Patented Feb; 11, 1919.

-- I u ,6- W I H 7/ I a 1" I N 4 77 jaw JEFFERSON CLAUDE DEAGAN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

PERCUSSION MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 11, 1919.

Application filed October 24, 1917. Serial No. 198,273.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JEFFERSON CLAUDE DEAGAN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Percussion Musical Instruments, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description.

My invention relates'to percussion-musical instruments of the kind employing sound producing bars tuned to produce tones of a musical scale. My invention has for its object the provision of mechanism whereby a door, inbeing swung, will effect the sounding of the bars in succession. The mechanism which is operated by the door to actuate the hammers is desirably of such a nature as to be inoperative when the door ismoving in one directioni For example, the mechanism may be such that the door will operate it as the door is being opened and fail to operate it when the door is being closed.

I will explain my'inventionrn'ore an by j reference to the accompanying drawing showing the preferred embodiment thereof and in which Figure 1 is a front view illustrating a musical instrument in combination with a door arranged in operating relation to the hammers of the instrument; Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view, somewhat diagrammatic, of the arrangement illustrated in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a view on a larger scale of the instrument and a contiguous portion of the door; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the structure illustrated in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a view on line 5-5 of Fig. 3; and Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the door operated hammer actuating device.

Like parts are indicated by similar characters of reference throughout the different figures.

The musical instrument which is to be sounded upon opening the door a is of any suitable construction. The instument shown comprises a plurality of solid sounding bars 1, 2, 3, 4: and 5 of the same widths and lengths but of increasing thicknesses. The thicknesses are selected according to the tones of a musical scale that the instrument is to produce and the bars are arranged in the order in which these tones are to occur. Each bar is suspended at an upper nodal point upon a rubber covered pin 6 and the bars are separated at their lower portions by rubber covered pins 7 which are normally clear thereof. The bars may be provided with suitable resonatingmeans such,-for example, as a resonating box 8 having openings 9 for the issuance of sound waves from the box. An instrument thus constructed is mounted upon a suitable portion of'a door frame, such as the top rail 10of the frame. Brackets '11 are anchored at 12 to the rail 10 of the door frame. These brackets are connected by a transverse strip 13, located near the upper ends of the bars, thatmay be integrally formed therewith. There are pairs of trunnion supports 11 upon the inner face of the strip 13,'each bar having a pair of trunnion supports opposite it. pending hammer stem 15 is pivotally mounted between the trunnions 14 of each pair. At the lower end of each hammer stem' there'is provided a hammer 16 arranged opposite' the lower end of the corresponding bar and within striking distance thereof. Each hammer stem- 7 is desirably continued below the hammer carried thereby and there is mounted-upon the extreme -lower end of each hammer stem a member 17 of a trip device. A trip lever 18 is pivotally mounted upon the element 17.

. The instrument is desirably mounted upon the rail 10 of the door frame about as far away from the hinged side of the door as is practicable. The height at which the instrument is located is such that the pivots 19 of the trip levers are located above the door while the trip levers themselves depend into the path of the door. When it is desired to sound the instrument as the door is being opened, as is usually the case, each trip lever and the hammer stem carrying it will be moved as a unit outwardly by the opening door to bring the corresponding hammer 16 to striking position. As the door is moved farther outwardly sufficiently to clear each trip lever the hammer 16 connected with such lever will be released to fall against the corresponding sounding bar to set up the sound producible by such bar. Whena closing movement is given the door the trip levers will turn upon their pivots, the door and trip levers then being in inactive relation. The instrument will not, therefore, be sounded during the closing movement of the door. While I prefer to have the instrument sounded upon but one of the movements of the door I do not wish to be limited to this arrangement.

Will be operated in succession. I increase the intervals at Whichthe hammers strike by progressively increasing the. lengths of the trip levers while maintaining the pivots" 19 in horizontal alinement. The longest trip lever isnearest the hinges b of the' door" and the shortest trip lever is near the free end of the door, the levers gradually increasing in lengthfrom-- the" short tothe long lever in the construction illustrated but to Which progressive extension. in: the I lengths of the trip leversI do not Wishto'belimited.

While I have herein show-n amdpaxrticwlarly described the preferred embodiment or my inventionl do not; Wish to delimited to the a precise details oi? construction shown as changes may readily be made. Without. departing; from the: spirit on my; inventionbut ll-ElNiHgj thus described invention]; claim as new and. desire to secure by Letters Patent the,;folloWing 1. A musical. instrument having: a pinrality; oat. sound producing b'ars',.and-r ham mers 0ne f0r-' each of the, bars, mounted for free swinging' movement,, in combination with a. door,. and. trip leversoperable in successioniby the door? and in: actuating; relation to the hammers", said. levers; proj eating to: various: extents in. the path. at movement oi: the door.

2.. musical. instrument having a 111,

Copies of this patentmay be obtained for five-cents eaoh,. by. addressing the washingtofi n cfl.

rality of sound producing bars; and hammers, one for each of the bars; in combination with a door and trip levers connected Withthehammersand operable in succession By the door during a predetermined amount of movement of the door in one direction.

3. A musical instrument having plurali ty of. soundv producing bars; and hammers, one for each of the bars; in combination With a door and trip! levers-operable in succession by: thedoor and. in actuating, re-

lationv to the hammers, said trip levers projeetin g to varying. extents in the path of. movement of: the-door.=

b. As musicalinstrument having a plurality of sound producing barsg, and v ham:- mereone for each or! the. bars; combination with a door and trip levers operable-in succession. by: the! door. andtin actuating relation respectively to'the hammers 5.-. A musical instrument having aiplurality' 0t. SCH-Edi producing bars andv hammers; one for each of; the'barse incombina tion. WltlI-fl (1 601? saidhammers. being operable. by" the door. in succession. during a predetermined; amountof. movement ofv the door. in oned-ireetion.;. g g

In witness; whereot I hereunto subscribe my-vzname this 25th dayof SeptembenA. D}, 191 Y innunnson. meridian;

Commissioner of Patents, 

